A 5-year-old boy in Arizona has died after he was left inside a hot vehicle while his parents hosted a family gathering.
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The boy, identified as Theo Sabo, was reportedly left inside the family’s car around 1 p.m. on Sunday, September 13, after returning home from a baptism ceremony for another child at their church.
At the time, Theo’s family was hosting a party attended by about 50 friends and relatives. More than two hours later, the family realized that the young boy was missing and discovered him unresponsive inside the vehicle parked outside their Peoria home.
Temperatures in the area reportedly reached 106 degrees that day.
Emergency responders performed CPR on Theo before he was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Theo’s parents, Mihail Sabo, 50, and Anca Sabo, 45, were charged with negligent homicide and child abuse following the incident.
The couple, who have four other children aged 18, 15, 14, and 9, appeared separately in court on Monday, September 14.
During the hearing, Mihail reportedly told police that he asked his 14-year-old son to remove Theo from the vehicle after they arrived home from the baptism. However, the teenager told authorities that he was never asked to do so.
During Anca’s court appearance, she was seen crying while her husband remained quiet with his head lowered, according to a livestream of the Maricopa County Superior Court hearing.
“This was a, I can’t overstress this, a tragedy,” the couple’s defense attorney Leah Dodd told the court.
Dodd maintained that Mihail had asked their teenage son to get Theo out of the vehicle, explaining that Anca was busy hosting the gathering.
“Mom is hosting a party at their home, assumes dad is gonna get [Theo]. Dad asks the 14-year-old. That’s not asking a young child to get another child out of the vehicle,” Dodd argued.
She added that Theo “was sleeping, and there was a lot going on, but this does not deviate from what a normal person would do in this situation.”
Meanwhile, Maricopa County Attorney Brooke Gaunt told the court that Theo was inside the vehicle for more than two and a half hours and that his parents were unaware of his location during that period.
The defense attorney argued that the charges were not appropriate for the case and described Theo’s death as “an unimaginable tragedy.”
“She called 911, she administered life-saving efforts, she answered all questions of detectives. This is not someone who is running away,” Dodd said.
“Everything that she and her husband did upon finding the child in the vehicle was standard care.”